


It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

by SlytherinsInSpace



Series: Reader/Characer Fics [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: F/M, OC, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 12:29:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12911958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlytherinsInSpace/pseuds/SlytherinsInSpace
Summary: “they’re going to take marks off. Blah blah blah, it’s vacation, it’s almost bloody Christmas why are we working anyway?”((The Harry Potter group I am part of on facebook gave the promt "In more than 1000 words write about your stay at Hogwarts over Christmas."so this is my response to that prompt.It's a reader/ Albus Potter fic.))





	It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Winter in the dungeons was brutal; it was cold, uncomfortable and frankly I couldn’t find a pair of socks warm enough to keep the chill out of my toes. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how my mom got the house to stay as warm as it was, she had sent the instructions for the warming charm with me third year, and try as I might I still hadn’t mastered It. 

Felt to me like I was doomed to be frozen forever. 

Aside from that, the Slytherin common room was beautiful, the war had done wonders in the form of inter-house unity and while the pictures in the albums my mother had from before the war had not a shred of red, the Christmas cheer was abundant as of late. 

I couldn’t help but smile every time I walked through the room, enchanted icicles strung around the window that looked out into the lake, ornaments floating through the room sometimes bumping into the taller student’s heads. Small orbs of light bouncing lightly off the walls, and a Christmas tree with all the most festive decorations. 

The house elves had truly outdone themselves. 

Significantly more of us had stayed this year than last year.  
The dorm didn’t feel nearly as empty with twelve of us, though it wasn’t as full as it normally was. It was enough to keep conversations pleasantly alive.

It seemed the closer we got to graduation the more of us tended to stick around, wanting to enjoy the magic of the castle one last winter. 

I couldn’t help but feel the same way as many of my classmates, Hogwarts had become my home these last seven years, and I couldn’t bear to even think about leaving it and never coming back. 

Albus said his father had felt the same way when he went to school, it was one of the few things they had agreed on. 

Imagine that, having the chosen one as your father and not liking him. 

Not that I could really blame him too much, the elder potter didn’t seem to understand us Slytherins too well. Which was strange to me seeing as he had part of one’s soul imbedded in his body for so long, but from what Albus says he isn’t the most observant man. 

It’s funny, how Albus and I became friends. 

I don’t really make friends easily, it hasn’t ever been a problem for me I fall in and out of groups easily and am easily accepted for the most part just about anywhere, but I would consider most of the people I spend my time around to be acquaintances. 

I spend time with the other girls in my dorm due to proximity, and with my family because we are family, but I don’t really go out of my way to spend time with anyone. 

Albus wasn’t all that different to begin with, now that I think about it. 

Scorpius and Albus had always done their own thing, neither of them had really wanted to be sorted into Slytherin and they were very against it from the beginning. 

Up until fourth year they didn’t really have much to do with the rest of us snakes. It was only after the yule ball when Scor had started dating Albus’ cousin Rose that Al had been forced to spend time with the rest of us peasants. 

And he didn’t seem all that happy about It frankly. 

Honestly, we weren’t thrilled about it either. 

A lot of us still had family who was on the wrong side of the war. Though we know that it was best for the wizarding world that the chosen one defeated the dark lord; it’s still tough to be surrounded by cousins who were orphaned at such a young age, by parents who outlived their children, and this kid was here looking just like the man who spear headed it all. 

It was rough for some of us. 

Rosier didn’t speak to him for the first three months that he sat at the Slytherin table for meals. Which seemed a bit excessive for the rest of us, who kept up civil conversation. 

It seemed like he would be just another acquaintance for me until we were both named prefects last year. 

We did rounds, and we spoke, and we laughed, and for the son of the most famous Gryffindor since Godric he had a pretty dark sense of humor. 

And damn it he was funny. 

Somehow, that messy headed nerd became my best friend. 

And somehow, this was our last Christmas in the place that made us friends. 

I could almost cry. 

Though I won’t, because crying is for Hufflepuffs; thank you very much. 

So here we are, on Christmas eve. 

Freezing our butts off in a dungeon. 

Trying to finish a charms essay. 

“why can’t we just used lined paper like the muggles do?” al yelled tossing his scroll aside. “all this magic and it still takes me a damn ruler to tell if I’ve written enough.”

I held back a snort “they’re going to take marks off for how large your handwriting is” I reminded him. 

“they’re going to take marks off. Blah blah blah” he mocked back. “it’s vacation, it’s almost bloody Christmas why are we working anyway?”

I thought about it for a minute, obviously we were studying because I wanted to be a medi-witch and you couldn’t just fake your way through charms and potions if you wanted to do that; but on the other hand, we did have until after the new year to finish this assignment. 

“what else would be doing?” I asked setting my assignment aside, “there isn’t anything else going on right now.”

“we should find something to do, hell make something to do.” He said 

It wasn’t a bad plan, and I had just been thinking that I was going to miss the hell out of this castle. It hurt my heart that I was going to have to leave soon, it would only be a few months now and then all the chances I would have to explore this castle would be gone. 

“eh, why the hell not?” I finally replied, “lead the way, Potter.”

He glared. “how many times.” he started before I laughed.

“what? It is your name isn’t it?” I teased back.

“I hate you.” He replied. 

Of course, he hated the name, the stress and the undue attention that came with it. 

Son of the chosen one, he was supposed to be perfect. And once he got sorted in with us snakes, well the media had a field day with that. 

“betrayal by blood: potter’s own son a snake?” 

I can only imagine how rough it really was; I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t tease him a little. 

“where are we headed?” I asked after following him through the halls, past the old potions classrooms and towards the entrance hall. 

“you’ll see” he answered, smirking. 

I wonder if Potter sr. had a smirk like that. 

The only side of history they taught was the good one. Harry Potter savior of the wizarding world, he was immovable in the face of danger, never second guessed himself, always polite. 

But who are we kidding? Have you ever met a fifteen-year-old boy that wasn’t kind of a jerk? From what Al said his father was kind of a snark factory. Honestly, I liked this side of the chosen one a lot better than the ones that we read about in history class. 

It made him real. 

He made mistakes, like all of us. 

If the world could have read that point of view, I bet they would have a whole different view. 

We marched through the halls, in and out of passages, past candles floating above us and wreaths on every wall, frost decorating every window. 

Down halls I never even knew existed, until we reached a statue. 

“this? This is what you wanted to show me? A witch statue? Frankly its offensive, why are witches so often depicted as ugly? Wizards are soooo cool and witches have warts, and one eye.” 

“are you done yet” he prompted 

“No, but I can’t think of anything else, so consider it on hold.” I responded crossing my arms in front of my chest. 

“good, because we have somewhere to be”

If that wasn’t meant to confuse me, I don’t know what was.

There wasn’t anywhere to go. There was the two of us, and a damn witch statue and nobody else around for what might as well have been miles. 

“prepare to have your mind blown.” 

“please, oh blower of minds- “I started sarcastically

“Dissendium” Albus muttered causing the statue to start moving

“what the…” I started 

“the non-believer says what now?” Albus jabbed

I smirked, “I concede defeat, my mind is indeed blown. What is this place?” 

“you’ll see.” He said climbing through the passage leaving me with no choice but to follow. 

Well, I could have gone back to the common room, but there was no way I wasn’t going to find out what was going on here. 

We walked for a while in silence, before my impatience got the best of me. 

“where the heck are we?” I asked gesturing with my lit wand to the grimy hall that seemed to go on forever. 

“it’s a passage out of the school, my uncle George told me about it.” He replied, “he did not mention how long it took to get there though.”

“get where?” I asked, annoyed. 

“that’s part of the surprise! Its supposed to be a surprise.” 

I grumbled a little as I’m not really a huge fan of surprises, nor am I a huge fan of walking for almost an hour in a cold dark passage. 

We couldn’t still be in the castle, I knew that much. We had been walking for too long in a straight line, I tried to think about where the heck we could possibly be going when I stumbled over a step. 

“were here.” Al laughed from the on top of the staircase I had just managed to fall into. 

“am I allowed to know where here is now?” I asked dusting off my pants and climbing up the stairs with him. 

He pushed up on a trap door, sticking his head through the few inches he had made to look around a bit before pushing it all the way open, allowing us to climb through.

“a… storage room?” I asked more than a little confused. 

“not just any storage room” he replied, “follow me.” 

He made his way across the room and up another staircase to another door, and given that I had already made It this far I didn’t really have much choice but to follow. 

“why do I let you drag me into these things?” 

“because without me you would just sit around the common room, reading a book like a Ravenclaw.” He jabbed. 

“hey! Ill have you know some of our ambitions include getting decent marks and going onto decent schools” I huffed back “not all of us have famous daddies, we can’t just coast  
by and still get to do whatever we want.”

He stopped on the stairs, frozen. 

It took me a few seconds to think about what I had said, but at that point it was too late. The words had already come out of my mouth and there was no going back now. 

“that’s what you think” he asked. “honestly of all people, I thought you understood.”

“I do.” I stammered, words flying around in my head. My throat was tight, I hadn’t meant it. I didn’t even know why I said it. “I.” 

“I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean that.” My face scrunched up like It does when I’m upset “I know you’re not using your dad to get what you want, you’re smart, without having to study for hours and, I don’t know I have to work so hard for it and you just put it off till last minute and ace the test anyway”

I took a deep breath trying to recover from fitting so many words into one sentence. 

“I, just. “I paused. “I guess I was just jealous” 

We stood there for a minute. 

It felt like forever. 

“I didn’t know you felt that way.” He said

“I try not to think about it” I replied. 

He nodded. 

“anyway, now that that’s over” he said not skipping a beat, he pushed open the door behind him

The light was almost blinding, after walking through that dark tunnel for an hour and then standing in this supply room, I could hardly see anything. 

But I could smell it. 

Toffee, and sugar, and candy. 

There was only one place in the world that smelled like this.

“no way, dude.” I exclaimed, rushing through the door. “NO WAY!” 

He chuckled. 

“how…what?” I whipped back around to look at him, eyes blinking furiously to combat the light “how did you do this? How are we in Honeydukes?”

This was amazing, this place had the most chocolate of any place I had ever been in my life. 

I started grabbing candy and shoving it into the bags they had all over the store. 

Al laughed at me, picking up a lollipop and popping it into his mouth. 

The store manager seemed a bit perplexed as to where we had come from, considering the bell on the door hadn’t chimed at all. 

“can I help you with anything?” she asked 

“nope.” I replied, “just fitting as much candy into this bag as humanly possible.” 

She chuckled and told me to let her know when I was ready to check out. 

“I’m not even sure how you knew about this, but I am not about to complain.”

“yea well I was talking to my uncle George about how much you love sweets, and he mentioned this passage out of the castle and, so I figured instead of trying to figure out what to get you for Christmas I would just bring you here and let you go wild.” He said smiling. 

“this is the best Christmas ever, like… nobody is ever going to top this.” I responded still trying to find a way to shove more candy into an already overflowing bag. 

“that’s the plan, Al Potter- best present giver ever, that’s what they’ll call me.” 

I snorted. 

“sure, not Al Potter- egomaniac.” 

We laughed, and puttered around a bit before al paid for the candy and we decided to walk around town a little bit before heading back. 

“where next?” I asked. 

“I didn’t plan much more than this.” He replied a little flustered. 

“psh. Some date you are.” I replied offhandedly. 

He didn’t say anything, and it took me a second before I realized what I had said. 

“I mean, uh.” I stumbled. “let’s go look at the joke shop” I said rushing into the store before I had a chance to shove my foot any farther into my own mouth. 

It wasn’t a date, I didn’t even want it to be a date. 

Or I hadn’t even thought about it being a date, I wasn’t opposed to it. If that’s what it was. But the fact of the matter is that it wasn’t. and the fact that I had gone and insinuated that I thought it was a date had ruined a perfectly good afternoon between friends. 

Because I couldn’t manage to find a brain to mouth filter. 

We walked around the joke shop quietly, picking things up off the shelves and putting them back down. 

It was awkward. 

All because of me and my big mouth. 

I tried to break the tension, and picked up one of the cartoonish Umbridge masks that they had started selling after the 2nd wizard war. 

“Mr. Potter what did I tell you about breathing in my classroom, how dare you. Detention!” I joked using my most obnoxious teacher voice. 

He laughed. 

Good. 

Laughter was good, maybe I hadn’t ruined the whole day. 

He picked up the mask of Gilderoy Lockhart and replied.

“did you know that I opened this joke shop, me, Gilderoy Lockhart. Can you imagine that? Of course, you can. After all I am amazing.” 

I doubled over laughing. 

“That is perfect, oh- god.” I laughed “you do a great Lockhart.”

“and you do a scary good Umbridge- I was almost afraid to breath.” 

“its all in the nose, mom said that woman sounded like she always had the most annoying chest cold- always clearing her throat.

“my mom said she carved messages into first year’s hands if they forgot their homework.”

We shuddered simultaneously.

“what a psyco”

“agreed.”

We finished walking through the joke shop and made our way back to the street. 

“its beautiful out.” Al commented. “all this snow, I really love Christmas. We usually spend Christmas as a huge family, everyone plays games and there’s lots of food and the adults get so drunk they’re hilarious to watch” he trailed off, frowning slightly. 

“why didn’t you go home this year?” I asked, “I mean that sounds like a lot of fun, my mom and brother and I usually spend Christmas eve reading in our pajamas and then sleep in and open presents the next day just the three of us, but my brother started at Durmstang this year- where his dad went, so my mom is visiting him in Germany and I decided I’d rather spend it at school than with his dad’s side of the family.”

He seemed to think about it for a second, weighing his options. 

“I- felt like I could- Like I should be here this year.” He said. 

And then I was more confused than before- we started down the path towards the school. Now that there wasn’t a surprise on the line we could take the much shorter path right  
back to the school gates that were open for the holiday during the day. 

Peaceful times allowed for more leniency I suppose. 

“that seems silly, you haven’t done anything but hang around with me all break.” I replied. “makes much more sense to spend Christmas with your loved ones.”

His face scrunched up and he muttered something under his breath. 

“I didn’t catch that- Al you have got to learn to stop being such a mumbler, honestly half the time I don’t even know what you’re- “ 

He cut me off “I said maybe I am.” 

I paused, confused by being cut off. 

“maybe you’re what.” I asked 

“spending Christmas- with my loved ones.”

“but you- oh.” I paused, brain finally catching up with itself. “ohhhhhhh” 

We walked silently for a minute. 

“I’m an idiot.” I finally said, “there is a reason I am not a Ravenclaw and clearly it is because I have no brain.” 

He laughed. 

“I had literally- no idea.” I started before pausing to think before I spoke. “I’m happy to be spending Christmas with you Al.” I finally settled on. 

There was more to say, and more to talk about. But for right then I was content to slip my cold hand into his warm one and keep walking back to the castle that had become our home for the last seven years. 

Maybe I would never see all the wonders Hogwarts had in store for me; and god- would I miss it. 

But I had a feeling; Life had a lot of wonders ahead- and I was just going to have to wait and find out.


End file.
